


Bonded Marks

by Neahkae



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 04:07:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7152875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neahkae/pseuds/Neahkae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whatever mark you get on your skin (scars/ink/anything that stays), your soulmate also gets on their skin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bonded Marks

It happened in the middle of the night. Searing pain slashed across his wrists. Grabbing his hand, Hide saw that no skin was broken, no blood produced but there were intense red markings along the underside of his forearm. And they didn’t stop. Tears formed in his eyes as the markings continued to form and he grabbed his blanket to put between his teeth to keep from screaming lest he wake his parents.

He looked at his clock and saw that it was just past one in the morning. Not much later he was able to relax as the markings had stopped forming. In his panicked state, he didn’t realize what was going on. Only now was he able to understand; His soulmate was cutting himself.

Quickly, he grabbed a pen off his desk. He knew he shouldn’t do this. It was taboo to write to your soulmate before you met them for the first time. It was some legend about rushing time will only lead to pain and suffering. He never really liked this rule.

_Fuck it. They’re suffering right now. The least I could do is let them have someone to talk to._ So with that, he wrote his first message.

**Are you okay?**

He obviously knew they weren’t okay but what else was he supposed to say? ‘It will be alright?’ Yeah right, how would he know what they were going through and if it’s going to be alright or not? For all he knew, cutting was the least of his worries. Hopefully it didn’t escalate to an actual attempt at their life. ‘I’m here, you can talk to me?’ Actually, he should have wrote that instead…

When he looked down he found more words hastily written below his own.

- **I’m fine**

_Yeah, right._ That was almost laughable.

**Sorry, that was a stupid question. Just know, if you need someone to talk to, I’m here, okay?**

He waited a few minutes tapping his pen against his leg. When no response came, he threw his pen over to his desk and laid back down. Hopefully, since they know someone is there for them, they won’t resort to anymore self-harm. At least for the rest of the night.

Checking every so often, he found nothing new was written on his arm leaving him to wonder if they had fallen asleep. He wondered what his soulmate looked like. What gender were they even? What was their personality like? They obviously didn’t like to be a burden on other people since they said that they were fine. And maybe they _were_ fine, who was he to know. But he had a feeling that was not the case.

Around two in the morning, he was beginning to fall back asleep. He checked his arm one last time before sleep over came him. Only now did more words show up.

- **Thank you**

\---

Over the course of the next few weeks, Hide got to know more about his soulmate. His name was Kaneki and he was a total nerd. Hide loved it. The way the words were quickly scribbled showed just how enthusiastic Kaneki was about his books and reading in general. Hide was always happy to get a message from Kaneki and would reply almost immediately when he noticed them.

It became habit that he check his arm often. Sometimes if he was bored, all he would do is stare at his arm. It was a shame he had to wash away his messages each time since he would love to read them over and over again. Hide was content though. No more markings had shown up; that didn’t necessarily mean Kaneki was better but at least he wasn’t harming himself. But for now, Hide was happy. Sure, he would love to meet Kaneki and since he also wrote in Japanese, he probably lived in Japan. Maybe even Tokyo.

Hide was content until one day he wasn’t and what changed it was one message from Kaneki.

- **Help me**

When he first saw it, he didn’t know what to do. He was in the middle of class right now. Quickly, he marked his own message.

**Where are you?**

Hide was starting to freak out. He needed to find the fastest way to get to Kaneki. Taking out his cell phone discreetly, he opened the maps app ready to put the address in.

- **Behind the school**

_What? The school? He goes to my school? Kaneki goes to_ my _school?_

Hide jumped out of his seat only to startle everyone in the class.

“Nagachika, just what are you doing,” the teacher sighed, no doubt tired of the pranks the class clown usually played. Without saying anything, Hide turned and bolted toward and out the door. “Nagachika! Get back here-,” the teacher’s words faded out.

Jumping down the stairs, he rushed to the back of the school. When he turned the corner he found a group a people surrounded around someone on the ground and it was likely that someone was Kaneki.

“Hey! They’re over here!” He yelled. Hopefully the aspect of teachers catching them would scare them off. And it did. They looked at Hide, who was waving his hand as to call someone unseen over and pointing at them.

“Shit,” one of them said and turned tail with the rest of them.

Hide ran over to the black haired boy on the ground and slid in front of him. He grabbed his arms and lifted them up searching for wounds or bruises.

“Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you, right? If they hurt you, I swear to god I’ll-”

“Hide, I’m fine. If they had hurt me, you would have felt it,” Kaneki interrupted and they stared at each other. For the first time seeing their soulmate.

“Holy shit, Kaneki. You’re beautiful,” Hide blurted out.

“Wha-,” Kaneki blushed and turned his head away to the side.

_Cute. He’s so cute._

“Hide, you can put my arms down now,” Kaneki mumbled, still looking away.

“Oh, right. Sorry. You’re sure you’re not hurt, right?” Hide let go of his arms for them to fall back to Kaneki’s side.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you for coming.” Kaneki looked back at him with a slight smile. Hide just stared, no words forming in his mind. How could he have such an adorable soulmate? The gods have certainly blessed him. “Hide, are _you_ okay? You seem kind of spaced out,” Kaneki stated, breaking Hide out of his daze.

“Huh? Oh, yeah! I’m totally fine. Just got lost in your eyes is all,” Hide said and flashed him his biggest grin.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Kaneki laughed. He actually laughed and it was the best sound Hide had ever heard. Better than any song on his favorite album by his favorite band.

“Oh, right! Kaneki, how did you know we went to the same school? I didn’t know that the genius Kaneki in class 2-1 was the same as my soulmate Kaneki.”

“At first, I didn’t know for sure. All I heard was people calling your name. After that, I kept noticing you more and noticed that you checked your arm a lot. Like _a lot_. You don’t even have a watch on. You weren’t very inconspicuous about it at all. But when you wrote something, it would show up on my arm, so then I knew for sure that you,” Kaneki paused, flushed, “you were my soulmate.”

“Kaneki…” Hide leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Kaneki. “I’m here.”

Kaneki chuckled, “Thank you.”

And Hide was content.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always appreciated!  
> Come visit my tumblr! lii3cu.tumblr.com


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